Emma’s Café – COM172 – Week5 Blog

Emma’s Café

Task 1

The first part of this assignment I have been asked to design a questionnaire for Emma’s café and give a brief explanation of the proposed questions I have created. By doing this it will provide Emma with an idea of what her potential customers may think about a vegetarian café and a more informative idea on how successful/unsuccessful her business would be if she was to go ahead and open her café within the University of Ulster Jordanstown.

Below I have provided the link to the questionnaire:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=dk9e5TI_2b_2bL8wweXqIfTn7g_3d_3d

This questionnaire will target not only the students and staff but visitors and people who pass through the university each day. The main aim is to discover how many people within the university are vegetarians and how many people like to eat healthy therefore would the thought of a café that serves vegetarians dishes be welcomed and would it be a success with in the university.

The questionnaire I have created contains a series of questions which I believe will give Emma an idea of the costumers her café would attract. The first few questions I created asked the potential costumer who is filling out the questionnaire if they are perhaps male or female, what age category they would fall under and if they are a vegetarian. As there is a local high school near by to the university there are always high school children passing through the university and using the facilities such as the canteens and shops so with this in mind the age category being provided in the questionnaire will give Emma an idea the type of customer she’s attracting as it is essential that Emma’s products are priced accordingly so that if the majority of the questionnaires came back with the costumer clientele aged either < 15 or 15 – 25 years old then Emma will know  that when pricing her products they have to be affordable to both the school children and student within the university.

I have then went on to ask the potential costumer that if they are a vegetarian then how long have they been, I feel this question is suitable as it would provide Emma with reassurance that once becoming a vegetarian it’s not just for a short period of time but that it’s a lifestyle that people are happy with and will continue to lead with therefore providing her with custom. In question number six of the questionnaire I have asked ‘do you try to eat healthily’, as it’s not just not vegetarians who will be hopefully providing Emma with custom but people who wish to eat healthy and not just to go for the big greasy burger in one of the other canteens in the university. I have also asked that if any of the existing restaurants/cafes within the university offer alternative vegetarian menus, this feedback will then provide Emma with an understanding of competition/noncompetition she would have. In question number nine I have asked do they feel there is a big enough demand for the requirements of vegetarian menu within Jordanstown campus, I believe this is the key question for Emma and the feedback she will receive will determine if she would receive enough custom for both vegetarians and non vegetarians to make her café a success.  

I wanted to keep the questionnaire simple and not confuse people with long questions or for them to provide a details answer as it can be off putting and resulting with people leaving questions blank or not even filling out the questionnaire. The layout of the questionnaire was quite simple and I supplied a small tick box for the selected answer. The main layout choice I choose consisted of:

• Multiple choice (only one answer)

My conclusion of the questionnaire is that it is simple to use and would take a maximum of two minutes or less for someone to fill in. I have tried to attract all types of people in the questionnaire and not just students or vegetarians. I believe Emma will have a good response from the questionnaire and weather the feedback is good or bad this it will help her make a decision to open or café or not.

Task 2

In task two I will give a brief description of how I will carry out an observation exercise to establish what people actually buy and eat as opposed to what they say they do. I will cover the following observation methods;

• Timing and duration
• Method
• Possible problems or difficulties
• Any other relevant details

There are a number of canteens within the university that I can carry out my observation exercise but as I believe the student union canteen and O’Briens sandwich bar are very different and both very popular with not just the student but also the staff and visitors to the university.

Timing and Duration

I will select adequate time during peek hours over a two week period to make the observation fair with each eating place. With this in mind I will have enough feedback to present to Emma and to analyse.

Method

The method I would use to carry out my observation on the different cafes is to;

• Ask the staff who work there which is the most sold food within each cafe
• Listen to requests from students which food they would like to eat in the canteen
• To review prices in each canteen to determine weather the students go for the cheapest and fastest food supplied.

This will allow me to see first hand people’s eating habits and will also give Emma feedback about weather students go for a cheaper option of food.

Problems

There can be some problems that I might occur when I’m carrying out my observation as;

• Some people might be upset being watched.
• People may even leave the shop once discovering I’m observing there eating habits.
• Some people may even change what they eat just because they are being watched.